LOS ANGELES _ The thieves seemed to know exactly what they were looking for.
They entered an unmarked warehouse on a South Los Angeles side street, moved through a warren of file cabinets, yellowing papers and jettisoned desks, and breached a small storage room.
Inside was a cache of furniture designed by two of the most celebrated American architects of the 20th century, Frank Lloyd Wright and Rudolph Schindler.
The thieves made off with two of Wright's striking floor lamps and a cushioned chair believed to have been designed by Schindler _ a haul with a potential value of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Six years after the heist at the USC warehouse, the identities of the perpetrators remain a mystery.
There is a second puzzle: Why didn't the university report the theft to police at the time or seek the public's help in recovering the irreplaceable pieces?
Detectives only learned of the larceny in recent weeks, after an anonymous letter to the Los Angeles Times revealed the crime.
